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Full text of "USPTO Patents Application 10782986"

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Response to First Official Action 
April 19,2005 
Serial No.: 10/782,986 
Grp/A.U. 3723 

gripping in a balanced manner facilitating application of force to the arrow shaft in line 
with an arrow shaft to be removed from a target material . 

19. (Previously Presented) An arrow extractor as set forth in claim 18 in 
which the first and second arrow shaft grippers come into substantial contact with each 
other when the lever arms are brought to parallel position. 

20. (Withdrawn) An arrow extractor as set forth in claim 18 in which the first 
and second arrow shaft grippers do not yet contact each other when the lever arms are 
brought to parallel position. 

REMARKS 

Applicant has, in response to the Examiner's rejection of application's claims amended 
such claims to avoid the prior art cited by the Examiner, and, it is believed, to better define the 
invention. 

The Examiner has cited two references one of which he asserts either substantially 
teaches the invention or if combined would render the invention obvious. The Examiner relies in 
particular upon the Edson reference which discloses a paint tube opener including gripping 
handles with a central resiliently lined opening between jaw pieces. The Chiu reference shows a 
forked pivot used on a nutcracker. 

Applicant has carefully designed his arrow gripper with considerable experimentation 
along the way for the extraction of arrows from targets and particularly hard plastic foam targets, 
although the arrow extractor of the invention works equally well with other target materials. 
Withdrawal from the usual hard plastic foam target has given considerable difficulty in the past, 
because, as explained in the application, arrows tend to freeze in such targets. 

The finally attained tool has met with considerable success and in fact has never failed to 
extract an arrow or has damaged an arrow by its use. While the gripper of the invention is simple 



Response to First Official Action 
April 19, 2005 
Serial No.: 10/782,986 
Grp/A.U. 3723 

and practical, it is extremely effective and, unlike previously known gripper and arrow extractors 
is invariably convenient and effective. 

Two characteristics of the invention are particularly important in its success (a) it is 
designed to secure a superlative grip upon an arrow shaft without damaging the structure of the 
arrow shaft and (b) it has a design allowing a backward pull, preferably with one hand, to keep 
the pull aligned straight from the target surface at essentially a right angel with such surface or 
parallel to the arrow shaft (c) the grip with the arrow is sufficient to allow the arrow to be rotated 
in the target without damage to "break" whatever hold the target material has established with the 
arrow surface as a result of high speed impact into such target. 

The Examiner has, as noted above, cited two references against Applicant's claims, 
namely the Edson reference which discloses a paint tube gripper for applying a sufficiently firm 
grip to an artist's tube of paint to be able to unscrew the cap, apparently with the other hand. As 
may be imagined in placing pressure on the sides of a paint tube, one must be careful to avoid 
squeezing the tube and possible breaking or rupturing it. This aim is accomplished in Edson, as 
clearly evident in Edson's drawings and description by having a rather thick resilient lining in the 
jaws of the paint tube gripper. This would not be effective in the Applicant's arrow gripper. 
Applicant notes that the discussion of Edson mentions that similar jar or jar top grippers have 
been used in the past, but that Edson has a thick gripping pad for cushioning the point tube. The 
Edson device would be completely unsuitable, therefore, for use on arrow as the Applicant uses 
his gripper. If the thick resilient pad of Edson was applied to the surface of an arrow it would, no 
doubt, not damage the arrow, but would also not be effective in extracting an arrow from a target. 
Instead the thick pad of Edson would tend to be disrupted or torn by either rotational or 
longitudinal force applied to the thick padding. 

The Edson tube clasping design also does not have the ergonomic design of the 
Applicant's arrow extractor which design allows one hand to easily hold the gripping device in a 
central position or, if preferred, two hands to grip the device on opposite sides of the arrow so 



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Response to First Official Action 
April 19, 2005 
Serial No.: 10/782,986 
Grp/A.U. 3723 

that a straight pull rearwardly can be effected to pull the arrow straight from a target. If one were 
to try to pull an arrow with the Edson device, even if such device was equipped with a resilient 
lining of correct characteristics it would be well nigh impossible to apply a straight backward 
force with all the force applied from one side and the arrow would not only tend to bind in its pit 
in the target, but the arrow shaft, particularly if one of the modern high density arrows, might 
well be fractured or even completely snapped off. 

The Chiu reference is a design patent showing a design for a nutcracker and was cited to 
show a fork type hinge at the end of the nutcracker, which is unlike the Edson reference which 
uses an external hinge. It is believed the Examiner realizes that Applicant does not wish to crack 
arrows and has apparently cited Chiu to show that a pivot type joint is known in the art, 
particularly where significant force is to be applied to joint. The fact that Edson's device is not 
designed for significant force to be applied to the device is, in fact, emphasized by the small 
hinge structure of Edson and the fact Edson proposes to make his holder out of plastic. 

Applicant has amended his Claims 1, 6 and 14 by adding functional language indicating 
the characteristics of the gripping action which must be applied by the invention to an arrow in 
order to be effective, i.e. the grip must not be so severe or crushing in nature as to damage an 
arrow shaft, yet it must be sufficiently secure to effectively immovably bind the gripper to the 
arrow to enable such arrow to be twisted rotationally in one, and, preferably, both directions, to 
break temporary adhesion of the arrow surface with the material of the target and allow the arrow 
to be withdrawn by a force at right angles to the target. These requirements are provided 
essentially by not only the physical arrangement and structure of the gripper as explained above, 
but also by the characteristics of the resilient material. The two major requirements are that the 
jaws of the gripper not damage either the surface of the arrow or the physical structure of the 
arrow at all and that the grip be sufficiently firm to be able to rotate the arrow in at least one 
direction in the target to break it loose from the target material to which it may have adhered. If 
the combination of the jaws of the gripper and the resilient lining of such jaws is sufficient to 



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Response to First Official Action 
April 19,2005 
Serial No.: 10/782,986 
Grp/A.U. 3723 

accomplish this, the gripper will be effective and if it is not, it will not be. This is all explained 
clearly in Applicant's specification and the functional language being added to the claims is 
therefore completely supported in the application. 

In addition, of course, the particular structure of the gripper of the invention makes it 
particularly useful. For example, as explained in the application, the actual gripping elements 
have been found for best and most effective action and convenience to necessarily be not less 
than 2 inches in length or width (actual contact length with or along the arrow surface) and not 
more than five inches in length. 

Meanwhile the best size for the lever arms is from 5 to 8 inches and the gripper should be 
attached to the lever arms not less than one quarter of this length lever arms from the hinge point 
nor preferably more than one third of such length, all as claimed in various of the dependent 
claims. See in particular dependent claims 5, 8, 12, 13, 15, 16 and 17. This allows the force to 
be applied to the arrow in both an effective and ergonomic manner as explained above. 

As will be evident, the handles or hand grips of the device cannot be as wide of the actual 
gripping elements. A minimum length of gripper must be used, however, if an effective grip is to 
be attained in a small convenient tool. Thus, it is preferable for the gripping elements to be 
elongated tubular elements attached to the gripping handles. Furthermore, as explained it is also 
well for the actual gripping elements to be mounted at some distance from the actual gripper 
pivot, le. at least about one quarter of the distance along the lever arm from the pivot or 
preferably not more than one third of such distance. 

This allows, if necessary, a two handed grip as shown in FIG. 5 upon the pivoting 
handles, but, even more importantly, allows as shown in FIG. 6 a one hand bracketing grip upon 
the arrow gripping device of the invention. These relationships are claimed in various of the 
dependent claims as noted above and are neither shown, suggested nor even hinted at by the cited 
references or any combination of the cited references. 



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Response to First Official Action 
April 19, 2005 
Serial No.: 10/782,986 
Gr p/A.U. 3723 

While the invention is admittedly simple in concept and operation, it is very sophisticated 
in its action and effectiveness and quite different from any of the arrow pullers of the prior art. It 
should be entitled, therefore, to claims equal in scope to the invention made. 

A two-month extension is requested for response to the Official Action. Check No. 5621 
in the amount of $225.00 in payment of such extension is enclosed. If any additional fees are 
due, please charge against Deposit Account No. 15-0385. 

Respectively submitted, 

Charles A. Wilkinson 
Attorney for Applicant 
Registration No. 20,891 



Date: April 19, 2005 

Law Offices of Charles A. Wilkinson 
68 East Broad Street 
P.O. Box 1426 

Bethlehem, PA 18016-1426 
Phone : 610/867-9700 
Fax 610/868-8869 



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